Achievement Unlocked 04.04.08: Achievements: Effecting Change

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 04.04.2008

Achievements have changed the way we play games, but have they changed the way developers approach designing games? Two design teams who've created influential Achievement lists weigh in on the subject



Call of Duty 4 is like the Mafia, just when you think you're out...they drag you back in. I'm talking about the DLC maps, which are available now on Xbox Live. I swore I wasn't going to get those maps, having burnt myself out on the game's multiplayer modes in the months since release.

Then I saw gameplay footage from Creek and knew I wouldn't be able to resist. Sure enough, as soon as they went live I was there with Microsoft Points in hand to pick them up.

And the maps are every bit as fun as I figured they would be. So yeah...I'm back in the online military again. I'd still like to see way more maps added, and it would be nice to be able to use custom builds in LAN play - but I'm back playing regardless.


But enough about Call of Duty 4 - let's talk about Achievements. I'm giving up on the developers who haven't had time to get back to me, I understand they're busy with deadlines but I can't keep the ones that did reply in a timely matter waiting forever, so let's take a look at what effect Achievements have had on development.

Hopefully some of the teams that have yet to answer will find the time to weigh in sooner or later, and I'll get back in touch with some of the ones who are too far away from release to talk about Achievements just yet - though I wonder if that's because they're not yet working on them, or if they don't want to tip their hand on what they're doing - so perhaps we'll see an update to this in the future.

All that aside, I don't think there were a better pair of games to feature on this with Universe at War and Half-Life 2: The Orange Box both featuring Achievement lists that go above and beyond. Universe at War ties the system into in-game buffs, while The Orange Box has the famous (or infamous, depending on which side you take) 99-Achievement list.

Let's kick off the questions with Universe At War:



411mania.com: Universe at War offers up multiplayer bonuses (medals) for Achievements, with up to three active in matches that allow them. What kind of balance concerns did that cause for gameplay and were there a few medal 'power combos' that didn't make it into the game?

Chris Rubyor: Initial concerns ranged from economy imbalances to overpowered weapon damage. Because the medals and their bonuses vary from faction to faction, it was imperative for us to get them into the game early and tested.

During the core balance phase, I had the values set to the extreme. Over time, as we played more games, I was able to work the bonus numbers for each medal down to something more acceptable. Players will use these medals during combat and feel as though they are getting that extra push. At the same time, the values are not so overpowered that your opponent would feel cheated.

Looking back at the design, it would be difficult to say that we had "power combos." Instead, we initially had about 12 medals per faction. Sadly, with so many medals, not all of them had a distinct feel. So with the help of creative director Adam Isgreen we spent about two weeks culling medals down to the current tally of seven per faction.

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411mania.com: Few games have offered gameplay bonuses related to Achievements. What was the thought process that led to the Achievements equal medals gameplay route, and was there more pressure to 'do it right' because few others have tried it?

Chris Rubyor: I've been waiting to incorporate a medals=buffs system for an RTS since 1999. When Westwood was working on C&C 3, before EA consolidated studios in 2003, the plan was to incorporate a medals system similar to UAW. Unfortunately that did work out as expected.

Four years later, MS LIVE and their Achievement system came knocking on our door. Having some familiarity with the LIVE system, I was delighted. Initially, when UAW was plugged into DemonWare, we were going to setup our own server to handle the distribution of medals. At the time, the system was unproven and there were security concerns. When we made the transition to LIVE, our concerns were eased as their security measures were very tight and distribution system proven.

The team was never pressured by the fact that no other developer had tried medals=buffs. The only pressure we had weighing down on us was ensuring the medals were fun to play with and balanced.

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411mania.com: How much planning went into the Achievement list (names of Achievements, associated tasks, and the artwork for each) and which Achievements are the development team favorites?

Chris Rubyor: The Achievement and medal list went through about 2 months of constant revisions. It was our first time working with LIVE, so we thought it to be very important to ensure all the names and ways to unlock the Achievements and medals were fun.

We have several Achievements in Universe at War that players might be able to figure where the inspiration for the name came from. For example: "Peace through Power" and my favorite "Blinded by the Light." As for team favorites I would have to say "Hoover Maneuver" and "Zombie Luvin" take the cake.

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411mania.com: Assuming the popularity of Achievements continues to grow, would you give the list and associated tasks more thought in future titles? What would you do differently, if that's the case?

Chris Rubyor: Personally, we did a great job when it came to planning out the Achievements and medals for UAW. Instead of looking at the Achievement system as a task, we embraced it by integrating the system as much as possible into the various parts of the game.

For future titles, the design would ensure that Achievements are spread evenly through all aspects of the game. In addition, medals would be designed for both the single-player campaign and multiplayer experience. I would also like to improve the bonuses medals grant the player during gameplay. So in addition to buffs, players could unlock new visual FX or models. We are experimenting with some new ideas that focus on medals unlocking other medals; hopefully the idea pans out.

I would like to mention that there are many things designers can do with the LIVE Achievement system. It all comes down to taking the time and risk to try something new.

The 411: It's nice that Achievements have let at least one developer realize a longstanding dream, and I have to admit that I found it a bit surprising they dedicated two months of work on the list and associated matters.

Talk of the single-player experience in future titles being affected by the currently multiplayer-only buff system piques my interest - especially the notion of unlocking new effects and models. And yeah - call out those other designers and get them trying something new. Just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean it can't be done, and done well.

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Of course when you talk about doing something new with Achievements, there's one game that broke the mold in a big, big way. I'm talking about Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, of course. The game has a 99-Achievement list that's not only big on quantity, but also big on quality - sporting some of last year's best Achievements.



411mana: Was much thought given to Achievements in the preliminary process of porting The Orange Box to the Xbox 360, or did that come in the later part of development as Achievements continued to grow in popularity?

David Speyrer: Achievements were part of the plan as soon as we decided to do an Xbox 360 version of The Orange Box. A lot of folks at Valve enjoy Xbox 360 games and drew inspiration from imaginative Achievements like Pacifist in Geometry Wars and Costume Party and Karate Champ in Dead Rising.

Those Achievements change the way you play in a way that matters and we felt like it was important to do something similarly interesting with our Achievements. We thought a lot about what kinds of fun gameplay we wanted to encourage or enhance and designed Achievements around those core ideas.

Some Achievements, like Little Rocket Man where you schlep a garden gnome across the entire game and finally launch it into space, stemmed from a series of wacky ideas that were then sculpted into Achievements.

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411mana: As the first, and thus far only, 99-Achievement game, was it difficult to pitch the concept to Microsoft?

Kerry Davis: When we told Microsoft about our idea to offer 99 Achievements, they said it would take an extremely compelling case to convince them.

So we put together two sets of Achievements, one with 50 and one with the 99 that we wanted. Turns out it was worth the extra work, because when you looked at the two lists side-by-side it was pretty clear that 50 Achievements just wasn't enough for five games.

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411mana: How much work went into the implementation of the list (in terms of generating and selecting artwork, Achievement names, choosing associated tasks, etc..) and which are your favourite Achievements?

Kerry Davis: To come up with all those achievements we let everyone in the company brainstorm for about two weeks, which generated a few hundred ideas.

Then a small group distilled that down to a set that had a variety of objectives and were evenly distributed across all five games. That was probably the hardest part of the whole process. Finally, our writers and artists polished everything off with interesting names and artwork.

One of my favorite achievements is Zombie Chopper, because we knew that Ravenholm was really fun to play with just the gravity gun, and this was our chance to encourage others to try playing it that way as well. We like to use achievements as another way to communicate with our players, telling them fun and unusual things to try or different ways to play the game.

When you find something unexpected in a game that you think is pretty cool and the achievement notification pops up, that's our way of saying, "Yeah, we thought that was pretty cool, too."

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411mania.com: As Achievements continue to grow in popularity, they've become part of marketing the title - most recently shown by SEGA releasing the Condemned 2 Achievement list prior to the game's release. Given that ever-increasing spotlight, would you give the Achievement list and associated tasks more thought in future titles? What would you do differently, if that's the case?

Kerry Davis: The most important thing with Achievements now is to dedicate the time and put a lot of thought into them, which means starting even earlier in the project schedule and continually re-evaluating how they'll interact with the gameplay experience, both positively and negatively.

Achievements started out as sort of a novelty, and there was some leeway as developers experimented with how to use them. Now they're becoming an integral part of the game experience, and players won't tolerate lazy Achievement design any more than they would lazy game design.

If I tell you to go do something a million times, is it because that thing is really fun or because I couldn't be bothered to come up with something better? Players now have enough experience with Achievements to tell the difference.

The 411: Unsurprisingly, the game that did so many things right with the Achievement system had them in mind from Day One. It's interesting that they were influenced by Achievements in other games, and even managed to one-up those 'change the way you play' notables with Little Rocket Man - including everyone in the company in the brainstorming sessions for Achievements obviously worked.

It's also nice to see Valve using the system as a validation for player experimentation. I can't count the number of times I've tried something off-the-wall in a game and idly wondered if anyone else had tried to do that as well. That *ding* of an Achievement unlocking is Valve's way of saying, "Hey, we're crazy about games too."

Most telling are Davis' final comments - Achievements may have started out as a novelty, but they definitely matter now. Developers have to up the ante if they want to stand out, and that means more than just putting out a 'good enough' list of repetitive tasks.

It's a slow, slow week for gaming. Hell, it's a slow month as we go through the annual Spring slowdown in the release schedule. Games delayed past the Fall rush from last year have come out, and development teams are cranking away on titles that won't see release until this Fall.

Oh, and pretty much everyone's getting the hell out of the way of Grand Theft Auto IV. It's out on the 29th...maybe you heard?

You could always do what I do and use this time to save some money for the Fall. Or maybe I'll pick up GT5 Prologue - though perhaps not, if I can't shake the feeling that I'd be paying for a demo. Maybe I'll grab it down the road if they add in damage as has been hinted.

Other than that, there's not a lot out this month - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES (PS2) is out on the 22nd for those still sticking with last-gen consoles, though it's not going to appeal to everyone. Baroque is also out this month for the PS2, another title that's probably going to hit a niche audience and disappear quickly.

I also keep hearing Too Human will hit shelves in early May, though it's a rumour that I doubt and there's no confirmation from Microsoft or Silicon Knights. This title has really caught my eye lately, and the Diablo-esque armor and weapon collection, coupled with Xbox Live play, might make it a winner.

Or maybe I'll use this time to clear up some Achievements I've wanted to get for a while and catch up on my sleep, ahead of the blitzkrieg on naptime that GTA IV is going to be.